Options for Commercialising Douglas Gas Discovery to Be Evaluated
25 July 2006 - 8:54AM
PR Newswire (US)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Austral
Pacific Energy Ltd. (TSX-V and NZSX: APX; AMEX: AEN) (Austral
Pacific) announced today that the PPL 235 joint venture is about to
embark on studies designed to evaluate the options for
commercialising its Douglas gas discovery in Papua New Guinea.
Austral Pacific has a 35% interest in PPL 235, the other joint
venture participant being Rift Oil PLC (65%). The Douglas-1 well
reached a target depth of 1978 metres on 26th May 2006. The
drilling and wireline logging results have now been fully evaluated
and the conclusion drawn by the joint venture's technical committee
is that the Douglas well appears to be an exciting gas discovery
with a significant gas resource of potentially several hundred
billion cubic feet contained in a large structure with a maximum
area of over 40 square kilometres. The discovery is also expected
to serve to lower the exploration risk for other identified
prospects and leads in the licence. It is the joint venture's
current intention to proceed with a detailed feasibility study to
determine a commercialisation strategy for this resource. The
excellent results obtained from the drilling record, wireline logs
and in particular from the Multi-Formation Tester, indicate that
there are two reservoirs (Alene and Toro) of sweet gas with good
deliverability and likely moderate condensate content. The joint
venture had initially considered conducting flow testing on the
Douglas-1 well but given the logs and MFT as well as the knowledge
obtained from data from nearby wells, the joint venture believes it
has a sound understanding of the envelope within which the
formation and fluid properties lie such that incurring the costs of
flow testing would not be warranted at this time. The joint venture
is also planning to acquire additional seismic in the licence in
order to determine the extent of the Douglas resource, to define
appraisal well locations on the Douglas structure and to define
exploration drilling locations on other prospects. The joint
venture is planning to bring forward to the 4th quarter of 2006 its
commitment to acquire and process 50 kilometres of new 2D seismic.
The new seismic data, when integrated with the existing data base,
will elevate the joint venture's understanding of the prospectivity
of the licence and will be critical in determining the best
locations for future drilling and enable the joint venture to
maximise the return on its investment. In making the announcement
Austral Pacific's Chief Executive Officer, Rick Webber, said, "The
goal for our company is to create shareholder wealth by
establishing and growing a low cost, sustainable oil and gas
production profile. The discovery of gas at Douglas, the initiation
of studies to look at the options for commercialising the resource,
and the acquisition of further seismic in the Douglas licence to
help us understand the extent of the resource and the prospectivity
in the licence area are key steps along the path to that goal."
Clarification At its recent Annual General Meeting, the Company
stated that merger and acquisition activity would be a potential
component in its growth strategy and since the meeting the Company
has noted the existence of rumours of an impending transaction
involving the Company. The Company confirms that while M&A
activity remains part of its corporate development strategy, it is
not currently in any merger discussions with any party. None of the
Exchanges upon which Austral Pacific's securities trade have
approved or disapproved the contents hereof. This release includes
certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of applicable legislation. Other
than statements of historical fact, all statements in this release
addressing future production, reserve potential, exploration and
development activities and other contingencies are forward-looking
statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed
in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future
performance, and actual results or developments may differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements, due to
factors such as market prices, exploration and development
successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and
general economic, market, political or business conditions. See our
public filings at http://www.sedar.com/ and
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm for further
information. Web site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/ Contact:
Rick Webber, CEO, +64-4-495-0888 Email: DATASOURCE: Austral Pacific
Energy Ltd CONTACT: Rick Webber, CEO, Austral Pacific,
+64-4-495-0888, or Web site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/
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